Q. What is the aim of the programme ‘Unnat Bharat Abhiyan’?

  • Achieving 100% literacy by promoting collaboration between voluntary organizations and government’s education system and local communities.
  • Connecting institutions of higher education with local communities to address development challenges through appropriate technologies.
  • Strengthening India’s scientific research institutions in order to make India a scientific and technological power.
  • Developing human capital by allocating special funds for health care and education of rural and urban poor, and organizing skill development programmes and vocational training for them.

Answer: (b) Connecting institutions of higher education with local communities to address development challenges through appropriate technologies.

Unnat Bharat Abhiyan Scheme:
  • Unnat Bharat Abhiyan is a flagship program of the Ministry of Education. It was launched in 2014.
  • Unnat Bharat Abhiyan is inspired by the vision of transformational change in rural development processes by leveraging knowledge 
  • It aims to link the Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) with a set of at least (5) villages, so that these institutions can contribute to the economic and social betterment of these village communities using their knowledge base.
    • It covers two major domains for holistic development of villages – human development and material (economic) development – in an integrated way.
  • The Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IIT, Delhi) has been designated as the National Coordinating Institute (NCI) for the UBA scheme.
  • Main Objectives:
    • To engage the faculty and students of HEIs in identifying development issues in rural areas and finding sustainable solutions for the same.
    • Identify & select existing innovative technologies, enable customisation of technologies, or devise implementation methods for innovative solutions, as required by the people.
    • To allow HEIs to contribute to devising systems for smooth implementation of various Government programmes.
  • Unnat Bharat Abhiyan 2.0:
    • It is the upgraded version of UBA 1.0. It was launched in 2018.
      • UBA 1.0 or UBA Phase-1 was the Invitation Mode in which Participating Institutions were invited to be a part of UBA.
      • Whereas UBA 2.0 is the Challenge Mode of Unnat Bharat Abhiyan programme where all HEIs are required to willingly adopt at least 5 villages. Currently, UBA 2.0 Mode is going on.
    • It was in line with the original goals of UBA, but had expanded over to a broader rural population and higher educational institutions.
    • Initially, only Government educational organisations were a part of UBA but later on both, public and private Institutions were included under this scheme.
    • Both, the faculty and the students of Higher Education Institutes were brought to an understanding with the rural people. They were made familiar with the everyday challenges of people in rural India.
    • Each Institute was to adopt certain number of villages, and then work with the District Administration to bring in new technologies and innovative ideas to solve the basic problems of their adopted village and its people.